


Inch by Inch

by VampireNaomi



Category: Lupin III
Genre: Banter, Injury, Multi, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29426481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampireNaomi/pseuds/VampireNaomi
Summary: A moment in the getaway car.
Relationships: Ishikawa Goemon XIII/Jigen Daisuke/Arsène Lupin III/Mine Fujiko
Comments: 11
Kudos: 45
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Inch by Inch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theultimateburrito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theultimateburrito/gifts).



Goemon was already on the front seat of the getaway car when Jigen came running, lungs aflame with the lack of air and trying to mind his knee that he was sure had gotten busted even if he couldn’t feel it yet; he’d only heard the pop. He’d run out of bullets a couple of blocks ago, and his only option after that had been to just make it to the car in one piece. Holes could be stitched shut, so he could take a few of those, hopefully.

“You okay?” Lupin asked from behind the wheel as Jigen leapt into the backseat. The engine was already running.

“Yeah,” he rasped and felt himself up and down. No blood, against all the odds.

“Fujiko is late,” Goemon informed them.

Jigen stopped for a second in the middle of digging for bullets under the seat in front of him. Right. The plan said he’d be the last in the car. They were already supposed to be on their way. Muddy dread settled in his gut. No way. Not after everything they’d been through this time.

“Where’s the loot?”

“Oh, come on! She hasn’t done that since -”

“Lupin. I asked where the loot is.”

“In the trunk! Goemon and I put it there! She hasn’t even been near it!”

Jigen acknowledged the words with a low grunt, grateful when a bunch of the goons who’d been after him came running from behind a corner and he could put his attention elsewhere. He’d been the distraction in today’s plan and created an opening for Fujiko to turn off the first section of the security system while Lupin and Goemon took down the rest and grabbed the loot. They’d all worked in different parts of the industrial complex, and they were supposed to meet here and make a flashy escape.

The only problem was that they currently had just about three and a half minutes to drive through the main gate before power returned to the complex and sealed both it and their fates. If Fujiko didn’t make it back _right now,_ they’d have to choose between her and themselves. And Jigen knew what the idiot behind the wheel would do.

It was what he’d do, too, if the missing person was Lupin or Goemon. Daisuke Jigen wasn’t a man who left a partner behind and saved his own ass. But Fujiko? He’d die of old age if he tried to count every time she’d turned her back on them to get out of trouble or take the target for herself. She had no right to expect him to see her as a partner.

Yet he couldn’t bring himself to bark at Lupin to step on it and get them away from here, not even when the seconds ticked down and they got closer and closer to the moment when it wouldn’t be possible even for them to make it. Fujiko could use a taste of her own medicine. Out of the three of them, she was the most likely to be spared if captured. She could wrap the evil CEO around her little finger and pretend she was double-crossing the gang and switching sides. And yet he felt sick at the thought of leaving her behind. She belonged with them.

His anxious musings came to a halt when the door opposite him was wrenched open and Fujiko dove in with so much haste that she collided into Jigen even though he was firmly on his side of the car. Lupin had the car moving a split second later, and the jolt made Jigen nearly bite his tongue.

“Don’t just leave the door open!” he yelled at Fujiko. They didn’t need to make it any easier for the enemy to shoot them. When she didn’t immediately do as he said, he climbed over her to pull the door shut. It was bulletproof, so he could have a brief moment to catch his breath and hope that Lupin got them through the gate in time.

“Fuck you,” Fujiko said. It made him pause. Not because of her choice of words, though he had to admit she was usually a little more skillful with her insults, but because of her breathless, exhausted voice. She was slumped against the seat, and Jigen realized that she’d brought a tangy stench of blood into the car with her.

He looked her up and down, and at first he couldn’t see where she was hurt because she was wearing an all-black catsuit and was bent at an awkward angle that hid her midriff from view. Jigen caught her by the shoulders and pushed her back to have a look. He felt light-headed with relief when he saw that she was clutching her thigh with both hands but that there was no damage to her stomach.

Okay, good. He could deal with having to patch her up, but he didn’t want to be alone with her in the backseat if she was dying. He wouldn’t know what to say, and he was sure she wouldn’t want him with her.

“The bullet still in?” he asked and reached for the first-aid kit they kept in the car.

“I’d be dead if not.”

Jigen clicked his tongue in response. Fine, dumb question. He glanced at the front of the car where Lupin was spinning the steering wheel with both hands to avoid hitting the goons who were dumb enough to jump in front of them. There was no hope that they could stop them from reaching the gate, but perhaps they thought they could slow them down enough that they wouldn’t make it in time.

“Fujiko, are you all right?” Goemon asked. His face was marred by concerned lines and frustration that he could do nothing for her from his seat.

“I’ve been shot before,” she said, forced laughter in her voice, and Jigen rolled his eyes under his hat. Of course Goemon got all the sweet talk. Jigen was sure that as soon as the pain and shock of the situation caught up with her, he’d become her punching bag.

“Move your hands,” he told her, and as soon as she did, he put a gauze dressing and a bandage roll on the wound and began to wrap another around her leg. She let out a sound of discomfort at how tight he was making it but didn’t tell him to stop. They both knew it was that or bleeding to death.

A bullet hit the rear window and left a blooming mark in the glass. A few more like that, and the glass might give in. Jigen saw Lupin adjust the rearview mirror to get a look.

“Goemon, can you do something about that?” he asked.

Goemon nodded and rolled down the window by his side. He began to climb out on the roof where he could deflect the bullets that got too close to them. It was their usual routine, except that normally Jigen was giving him cover by shooting at their assailants.

As soon as he was sure Fujiko’s bandage would hold, he reloaded his gun and clicked the cylinder shut. However, he only got his head out the window before Goemon told him he could handle it.

“Stay with Fujiko.”

“I already bandaged her up. She’s going to be fine. There’s nothing more I can do.”

“I’d still prefer if you stayed with her. I don’t require your presence as much at the moment.”

“Bullcrap! We don’t need another person with a bullet hole in this car!”

Goemon’s sword came down to cut a bullet that would have smashed their right side-view mirror. His blade barely missed Jigen’s ear. Whether that was meant to emphasize his words, Jigen didn’t know and didn’t want to find out. He’d give Goemon a piece of his mind later when they were all safe, even as he knew it made him a hypocrite. He and Goemon had the same flaw; they were always a little too eager to risk their lives for the people they thought worthy of it.

He withdrew back inside the car and rolled the window up again.

“Are we going to make it?” he asked Lupin and leaned past the now empty passenger seat to have a look.

Lupin was grinning like a madman. There was a trickle of sweat rolling down the side of his head, and at some point he’d pulled his tie looser. He had a wild gleam in his eyes that Jigen hadn’t seen in a while, and he honestly couldn’t tell if that was a good sign or not. Lupin was having the time of his life, but he didn’t trust the bastard not to beam like that at the idea of them all going out in a blaze of glory. Lupin was crazy enough to think it was romantic.

“Twenty seconds until the gate closes, and we have one more swerve to make. Goemon, grab onto something or you’re falling off!” Lupin said.

Jigen only had that as his warning before the car took a sharp turn to the right. He fell back against the backseat and yelled an insult at Lupin, but in the next instant, their car flew through the gate, followed by a mighty boom as the massive doors closed right behind them.

That didn’t mean the chase was over, but at least they weren’t trapped with the enemy. Jigen relaxed against the seat and shot a glance at Fujiko. She was rubbing her hands together, and at first he thought it was just to get the blood off them - typical of women, caring about appearances and little comforts in a life or death situation - but then he realized her whole frame was shivering.

No wonder. She had to have lost a lot of blood. It was a miracle she’d made it back to the car in time with a bullet in her leg, and it hit Jigen with a sudden force that he was so damn grateful for that. He still didn’t know what to make of her and how she fit into his life, but he hated the fact that his first impulse upon hearing she was late had been that she’d betrayed them.

Lupin was right. She hadn’t done that in a long time. It annoyed Jigen sometimes because it left him with no good reason to dislike her and made him feel like he was supposed to change something about his attitude, too, or be left as the unreasonable one.

He peeled off his jacket and offered to drape it over her shoulders. She accepted, and her content sigh at its warmth was kind of endearing. Women in trouble were his weakness, even when he knew they had claws.

“Did we get the loot?” she asked.

“That’s what you’re worried about?”

“I’m going to be bed-ridden for a while, and if I find out I took a bullet for nothing, I -”

“Relax, we got it. It’s in the trunk.”

“Good.” Fujiko’s body relaxed with that information, and she wriggled deeper inside Jigen’s jacket. 

“Don’t fall asleep,” he told her.

“I couldn’t even if I tried to. Your jacket smells worse than death. Don’t worry.”

“Worry for you? Don’t make me laugh. The only thing I’m worried about is that you’ll use this to negotiate more than your share of the spoils.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. Thanks!”

Jigen turned to look back to see how many pursuers they had after them, but the craters left by their bullets made it hard to see anything through the glass. He called out to Goemon who reported that the last car after them had crashed some minutes ago but he’d rather keep watch just in case.

“Nah, come back inside. I don’t want to lose you if I have to hit the brakes,” Lupin said. “You okay back there, Fuji-cakes? You gave us a scare!”

Jigen was sure that Lupin was the one who’d been the most worried when Fujiko hadn’t shown up in time. He just didn’t want to admit it and break the illusion that their little group wasn’t immortal. Especially Fujiko. She was like a cat that always landed on her feet. It was normal that the three of them got banged up on heists, but not her.

“No, I’m not okay! My leg hurts like hell, and now I’ll have to cancel my vacation. I already had everything booked.”

“Maybe you should be glad that you actually made it back to us alive,” Jigen said.

“I’ll be glad when Lupin gets this bullet out of me.”

“Oh, I’m so happy I’m your first pick!”

“That’s just because these two idiots don’t care that I want to keep wearing short dresses. I know you’ll make the scar as small as possible.”

“Scars you get when helping your comrades should be carried with pride,” Goemon said. Even after all that they’d been through, he refused to call any of them his lovers. Jigen guessed a lover was something fleeting to a man like Goemon, but partners were forever. It wasn’t all that different from how Jigen had lived his life, but he’d grown to like the thought that the others were something more to him. It was his age making him sentimental, he guessed.

“Easy for a man to say. Anyway, do we have any painkillers?”

“Don’t look at me. There were none in the first-aid kit. I could use some, too. My knee’s busted,” Jigen said.

“It’ll be a while until we get to the safehouse. Goemon, have we got anything in the glove compartment?” Lupin asked.

Goemon spent a moment rummaging through the items. “There’s gum, some unlabelled cassette tapes, a half-eaten sandwich and… oh, um… condoms.”

“Why have we stocked up on condoms but not painkillers?” Jigen asked.

Lupin turned around to glare at him. “It’s not that! We just use up painkillers more than condoms. This group doesn’t need less condoms but more sex!”

“I’d settle for fewer injuries,” Goemon said. He rolled down his window and tossed out the condoms, ignoring Lupin’s heart-broken protest.

“You don’t even take painkillers unless we make you,” Jigen said.

“I have my own ways of dealing with pain.”

“That’s great, but I need something else,” Fujiko said.

She started to dig in the pockets of Jigen’s jacket and pulled out a pack of Pall Malls and a lighter. She fished out a cigarette with her lips and began struggling with the lighter until she gave up with a disgusted sigh.

“Give me that. It’s fussy,” Jigen said and took the lighter from her. He lit her cigarette and put the lighter into his pants pocket to make sure she didn’t keep it. It wasn’t worth much, but it had sentimental value. Apart from his gun, it was the only thing from his days before Lupin that he hadn’t replaced.

Fujiko took a drag out of the cigarette and tried to find a better position without moving her leg too much. She leaned against Jigen and settled there, and he figured she had to be getting pretty light-headed from blood loss if she felt comfortable against his bony shoulder.

“No sleep,” he reminded her and took the cigarette from her fingers when it looked like she might drop it. He should ask Lupin to switch with him because he was sure everyone would like that arrangement better. However, the ache in his knee was finally beginning to make itself known. He didn’t want to complain when Fujiko had a bullet lodged in her thigh and wasn’t crying about it, but he didn’t know if he’d be able to handle the car if the enemy came back.

“Let me know when you get tired. I can drive, too,” he said anyway.

Lupin turned to look at him with a smile. Not his usual grin that showed all his teeth but a soft one, a little crooked but full of so much affection that Jigen felt like covering his entire face under his hat to stop him from looking at him like that.

No, not him. Not _just_ him. Lupin was looking at Fujiko, too, and how she was resting her head against Jigen’s shoulder and he wasn’t shoving her away.

“Oh, don’t worry. I don’t think I’ll be getting tired any time soon. But you two, you look like you need some rest. Goemon and I will keep watch, so just relax, okay?”

Lupin’s tone made it sound like this was just a leisurely Sunday drive in the countryside and not a getaway that’d cause an international scandal once it went public. Jigen knew better than to think they could relax until they were across the border and living under fake identities for a while, and yet it was tempting to believe Lupin and put his guard down. 

Some days he couldn’t believe what a fool he was. He’d been stabbed in the back so many times that he’d vowed he’d never trust or love anyone like that again. And here he was, surrounded by no fewer than three people who all held his heart in their hands, one way or another, and made him feel like it wasn’t the blackened lump of coal he’d tried to make it out to be for so long.


End file.
